Power System Layout

Ok since I'm working on developing this I want to get a feel for the features that should be added. I'm looking for all ideas that have to do with a generator or a machine that runs off power or a power manipulator. And I will use my mod powers to discourage all derailing attempts, this is a serious topip(c ), 'kay?

Generators:

Combustion Engine (FINISHED)

Solar Panels

Nuclear reactor (probably going to group this with everything that burns)

ZPM (antimatter since ectremble hates this?) (or just best and most expensive generator)

Hydro Power

Manipulator:

Batteries

Splitter (for splitting power between circuits, pretty sure this will be useful)

Machines:

I'm guessing most things in a ship will run off this.

Ground-based turrents

Last edited by Danice123 on Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:38 pm; edited 5 times in total

WBIC. (Water Based Ion Cannon.) A medium sized ion cannon, set in a river or ocean with a swivel mount, running off advanced hydro generators. For balancing issues, they require a long time to charge after each shot.

haha. Ok ok, gawd, I'll be serious. You'd think I was like 12 or something (which I'm not for the curious)

WBIC sounds dumb and impractical. Planetary defenses sound good. I'm thinking some sort of platform you built in space near you're entrance to space point to act as a point defense. Ground to air could be lasers, missile defense systems, even heavy cannons and the like.

Generators, I'd remove furnace generators, I think a nuclear reactor will be the smallest, possibly something like a furance, only require uranium or something like that to fuel it.

I'd add capacitors, something like a battery that is capable of short, but large bursts of energy (if you're building a fluid energy system, if its just A -> B, no speed required, scrap capacitors).

Wireless energy, I'd say no. The principal of wireless energy over sort distances is plausible, but practical? no, you'd short out half the devices you were trying to power unless you had amazing insulation.

Splitters actually sound like a good idea. A way to link two grids together with some sort of control, like a fail safe so you can have a backup power system for your life support or something of that nature.

Some form of wiring should be included I suppose.

Anyway, that's it from me for now.... WBIC, really? Water ions, that's more ridiculous then a ZPM. Although I like the concept of hydro energy. Your halfway there Daman

Planetary defenses sound good. I'm thinking some sort of platform you built in space near you're entrance to space point to act as a point defense. Ground to air could be lasers, missile defense systems, even heavy cannons and the like.

Personally, I'm hoping to see something similar to the Helghast's Arc cannons ( nothing to do with the arc reactor from iron man I suggested earlier ) as surface-to-air anti ship weapons.

Quote :

Anyway, that's it from me for now.... WBIC, really? Water ions, that's more ridiculous then a ZPM. Although I like the concept of hydro energy. Your halfway there Daman

I think what he meant was an Ion cannon that uses hydro electicity as a power source, not as ammunition or a chemical component to the actual ion shooting.

Well we can create water reservoirs where we need them and create a grid covered by different Ion cannons, eventually covering most of the sky ( not all of it, obviously, minecraft worlds being so huge, but you know? enough to cover the sky over your cities and constructs )

Well at the moment I'm not going to mess with orbital defences except to say that they will be implemented. capacitors wont be necessary 'cause its fluid. I'm really just fishing for generators and things that need to be implemented into the power system itself. Also another interesting topip would be what kind of units this power system should use. Do solar cells produce 10 or 1... volts? then do nuclear reactors produce... 10000 volts? and how much is needed to power things?

Well, volts isn't a unit a power measurement, its power speed (actually electrical speed). Watt's would be the appropriate measure, you use Amps for the amount, Volts for the speed, Amps * Volts = Watts, I.e 12v * 100 Amps is 1200 Watts of potential energy output. Did I mention I used to work on car stereos?

Anyway, I think for simplicity sake, Watts should be the output, I wouldn't try to complicate it by adding amps and volts into the equation when they're not needed unless you want your power to go down the further it travels (dissipation of energy etc).

Well I figured the minute I tried to put a unit of measure on this power system I was doomed... Watts it is. And Frost and I deceided that dissipation was a bad idea so the power keeps on going, and going, and going....

Wooo! Infinite range power. We can have generators on one side of a continent, and they'd feed the ship building factory under the sea on the other side of the continent! You could even attach power lines to space stations. Awesome.Also, coal power is for newbs and should never be used.

For those against the furnace (using coal, wood, etc), like ectrimble said: replace it with the nuclear reactor (/now adding on/) but instead of JUST uranium in the nuclear reactor, designate it a thermal generator so that any reaction [ uranium, wood, coal, lava, bookshelves, noxious methane that siblings make ...] can be placed in one of the reaction chambers [this could be modular which allows for more than one reaction going on at one time], this would mix a generator and a furnace together (everybody likes multipurpose!) The only thing for the generator portion is that water is needed for the energy transfer to actually work ( heat is produced, evaporates water, hits turbine and spins, causing friction and movement, producing electricity. ( Modern energy concepts, yes i know, but here is a starting point to work off of).

Fission and fusion reactors (though considered nuclear) can maybe be separated from thermal generators as their execution concepts are moderately different and the inner workings of the machine will not be anything like the thermal generator [ now this is not set in stone, feel free to add stuff to this portion as I have a pile of notes about possible generator designs but overall no idea what you guys want in this section.

The only reason I added thermal generators (for burningcoal, etc.) is that we will need something to provide power while we aregathering the resources necessary to build higher tier generators. Even thoughnone of the advanced civilizations will use them, they are an important steppingstone to the technology available in Futurecraft.

The only reason I added thermal generators (for burningcoal, etc.) is that we will need something to provide power while we aregathering the resources necessary to build higher tier generators. Even thoughnone of the advanced civilizations will use them, they are an important steppingstone to the technology available in Futurecraft.

I think I would actually like it more if it couldn't be used on ships, but for ground applications? I think they'd be useful all the time, especially if we could make advanced coal plants that provide power instead of just smelting things. That would give us a use for all that coal we find while looking for ship building metals.

You can use them for anything, but they are a waste compared to othersources of energy. You would only power your defences with them if you are a block-head.All the intelligent people will use Vacuum Energy, even if it isn't like a ZPM(I still think it is definitely worth adding as a good form of energy).

I haven't got anything against ZPMs, but how in hell do you use coal to power ships?! That would take exorbitant amounts.For anti air defense, you'd only have to have minimal usage while they aren't working (sleep state), and when they start moving their barrels around, you get a medium surge in usage, when they fire (I'm thinking of MAC cannons) they use very large amounts. The coal plants would supply capacitors next to the cannons, then the capacitors would feed the power in.

I haven't got anything against ZPMs, but how in hell do you use coal to power ships?! That would take exorbitant amounts.For anti air defense, you'd only have to have minimal usage while they aren't working (sleep state), and when they start moving their barrels around, you get a medium surge in usage, when they fire (I'm thinking of MAC cannons) they use very large amounts. The coal plants would supply capacitors next to the cannons, then the capacitors would feed the power in.

haha. Ok ok, gawd, I'll be serious. You'd think I was like 12 or something (which I'm not for the curious)

WBIC sounds dumb and impractical. Planetary defenses sound good. I'm thinking some sort of platform you built in space near you're entrance to space point to act as a point defense. Ground to air could be lasers, missile defense systems, even heavy cannons and the like.

Generators, I'd remove furnace generators, I think a nuclear reactor will be the smallest, possibly something like a furance, only require uranium or something like that to fuel it.

I'd add capacitors, something like a battery that is capable of short, but large bursts of energy (if you're building a fluid energy system, if its just A -> B, no speed required, scrap capacitors).

Wireless energy, I'd say no. The principal of wireless energy over sort distances is plausible, but practical? no, you'd short out half the devices you were trying to power unless you had amazing insulation.

Splitters actually sound like a good idea. A way to link two grids together with some sort of control, like a fail safe so you can have a backup power system for your life support or something of that nature.

Some form of wiring should be included I suppose.

Anyway, that's it from me for now.... WBIC, really? Water ions, that's more ridiculous then a ZPM. Although I like the concept of hydro energy. Your halfway there Daman

Wireless is actually a real-world thing... my phone has never seen a charging cord in its existence.

Additionally, I'd like to see not just fusion, but cold fusion for those of us who don't want to have to worry about a runaway star going off in the middle of our much-labored-upon battleships/cruisers if/when the computers controlling the reactor take damage from enemy fire.

Plus, we now have cold-fusion reactors IRL, as I read in an article last night. Spain has one under construction.

Uhh... well, I was trying to make a point that coal power shouldn't actually be allowed in ships due to massive failure. Well, actually you might be able to use them on non-military transport ships that only go a short distance, maybe inside a system or to a directly neighbouring one. So, my own points are invalid. I feel stupid now.

No! No coal in ships. I'm saying if you want to be inefficientyou could power your ship/building with coal, but it is remarkably inefficient,and only beginners would use it. For a ship of a Dreadnought's size, it wouldrequire hundred of generators, while you could just stick down 2-3 class II nucleargenerator (this is using my old system, which apparently no one can agree on)for the same effect.

Wireless is actually a real-world thing... my phone has never seen a charging cord in its existence.

Are you referring to those charging pads? The pad that you still plug into the wall and have to have the adapter that plugs into the phone?

Still technically coming through a cord. And what's even more interesting to me is that the power is actually transmitted over the phone through the adapter into the power charge, so still not technically wireless, just wire LESS. If it was truly wireless it would be able to charge in your pocket while you were walking by the charging station.

If you're not talking about those charging pads, please enlightenment me.

Wireless is actually a real-world thing... my phone has never seen a charging cord in its existence.

If it was truly wireless it would be able to charge in your pocket while you were walking by the charging station.

That would be awesome.

But Doc, we could add this thermal generator as an energy production unit for those who are just starting off, and in itself would be much more efficient than those darn furnaces for smelting. True it is not that efficient, but really? Who, in the almighty Shiva's name, would be stupid enough (my apologies if I offend anyone) to do that sort of thing?

And as ectrimble said in the'power generation' topic, we do need a basic frame work first before we speed ahead onto the advanced generators, keep in mind that in game you start as a random person in the wild, with supposedly no knowledge of the working universe and to just from there straight into building incredibly sophisticated machines in a week is just ... I don't know, maybe this idea is moving more towards evolutioncraft than actual futurecraft.